MANKATO, Minn. (AP) — A security guard at the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program in St. Peter is accused of having a sexual relationship with a patient.
Claudia Kogo, 57, of Mankato, was charged Friday in Nicollet County District Court with felony counts of criminal sexual conduct, the Mankato Free Press reported.
Authorities say a patient who was committed as a sexually dangerous person reported that he had sex with Kogo more than two dozen times in late 2017. The patient said the relationship started with flirting and progressed to sex.
Prosecutors allege that Kogo told a state investigator she kissed and groped the patient but denied having sex with him. A St. Peter police detective who listened to recordings of phone calls between Kogo and the patient said many of the calls included conversations about their sexual activities, according to court documents.
Kogo no longer works at the facility, a Minnesota Department of Human Services spokesman said. A phone number for Kogo could not be found.
The Minnesota Sex Offender Program confines sex offenders who have finished their prison sentences in secure treatment facilities in St. Peter and Moose Lake. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2017 ruled against reviewing Minnesota's civil commitment program for sex offenders, which had been challenged as unconstitutional for rarely releasing patients.
"Sexual relationships between staff and patients or clients at DHS treatment facilities are unacceptable under any circumstances," Department of Human Services Deputy Commissioner Chuck Johnson said in a statement. "We immediately investigate all such allegations, which can result in discipline or termination of the staff person."
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